By Sean Bailey / Staff Writer

Ryan Creech isn’t a full-time magician, but on Saturday he entertained some of the residents at the Williamsburg Emergency Christian Shelter with all sorts of magic tricks. With slight of hand Creech turned a regular eight of spades playing card, into a blank card.

Creech then handed over the card to little Jasmine Cureton, who kicked in her highchair in excitement.

Creech wasn’t at the shelter to just entertain the residents with his magic tricks, he also came to read “Rosa” by Knoxville native Nikki Giovanni as part of Whitley County’s Big Read program.

“Rosa” recounts the struggle of Rosa Parks during the early days of the Civil Rights movement through pictures and language that children can understand. The Big Read program, which started earlier this summer in Whitley County, strives to foster community understanding through the shared experience and discussion of two books, one being “Rosa” and the other, “A Lesson Before Dying” by Ernest J. Gaines, is geared toward older Whitley Countians. Both books explore the early civil rights movement.

Mike Albertson, pastor at Pleasant View Methodist Church and the First United Methodist Church in Williamsburg, was asked to be one of the community members to help promote the books and the community activities surrounding the Big Read.

“(The Big Read) is meant to both promote literacy and developing community relationships, that’s the idea, to get a lot of people reading a particular book in order to have conversations, to talk about some of the issues raised in the book,” Albertson said.

Albertson said the event at the Emergency Christian Shelter on Saturday was meant to bring the conversation to the shelter residents and also to raise awareness in the community about the “good work” the shelter is doing.

The shelter is unique in that it offers long-term services for children, individuals, and families who need “help getting back on their feet” Albertson said. Usually shelters only cater to just men, or just women, and have certain lengths of stay requirements. At any given time 20 to 30 people live at the shelter, while they search for jobs. They can stay at the shelter as long as they meet certain requirements.

Albertson said the director of the shelter Bill Woodward, is a huge asset to the community as a whole.

“This is a unique community assets, and of course in order to have an operation like this function, you have to have somebody with a vision, passion, a mission, and that’s the director Bill Woodward,” Albertson said.

After the magic tricks and Creech’s reading of the “Rosa” the women of Pleasant View Methodist, treated residents and Big Read attendees with homemade soup, sandwiches and desserts.

Besides being a magician, Creech is a graduate of the University of the Cumberlands and is currently recieving his masters in communications through an online course at Gonzaga University. Creech has read both Big Read books, and says “A Lesson Before Dying” is one of those rare books that impacts people no matter their differences.

“I think the book is extremely powerful and a lot of (the reason why) is that it tells the history of the Civil Rights movement, and how far we’ve come as a country,” Creech said.

“A Lesson Before Dying” is the story of an uneducated young black man named Jefferson who is accused of the murder of a white storekeeper, and Grant Wiggins, a college-educated native son of Louisiana who teaches at a plantation school. According to Big Read organizers the book “poses one of the most universal questions literature can ask: Knowing we’re going to die, how should we live?”

Creech said that “A Lesson Before Dying” author Ernest Gaines interviewed people on death row, before reading the book, which adds a “realistic power” to the story.

“In a way it is based on a true story, you can’t help but to come away from the book thinking different. I would recommend this book to anyone,” Creech said.

After reading the book, Creech said he wrote on his Facebook profile that he had just completed the book, and friends from across the country wrote back, and described just how powerfully the book had impacted their lives.

Both Creech and Albertson are part of another community project that hopes to bring the community closer together. The “Reclaiming Futures” program is a federal grant that Whitley County recently received which works to fight teenage poverty, teenage pregnancy, and teenage drug use. Albertson said Jill West and Whitley County District Judge Cathy Prewitt have been instrumental in bringing the grant to Whitley County.

Creech is currently working on a Web site through the grant that will connect people in need with all sorts of orginizations around the county that can help them out, orginizations like the Williamsburg Emergency Christian Shelter.

“The goal of the Web site is too offer resources to serve purpose (of fighting teenage poverty, teenage pregnancy, and teenage drug use) and put them all together in one place,” Creech said, “The biggest problem is there are so many resources out there, so many ministries, so many government programs, but it’s very difficult to find them when you need them.”

The site, when completed will make all those community resources much more accessible. Albertson added that it will also help those who wish to volunteer at the numerous aid agencies.

While the Web site is under construction, Creech will be contiuning his work with the Big Read. On Oct. 13 Creech will bring his show to the Whitley County Public Library. He and a few other communities will lead a book talk about “A Lesson Before Dying”. He will be doing two talks/magic shows one at 10 a.m. and 7 p.m. Community members will be able to pick up the book if they haven’t read it yet.